Brewing first CDA, thoughts?

[Heavywalker]

My LHBS has a beer club that has a competition each month, next months beer type is supposed to be a CDA (Black IPA)

If this turns out I will call it my '4 C'sons CDA' this is what I threw together, Any suggestions, or comments would be appriciated.

Thanks

4 gallon boil 5 gallon batch
OG 1.065
FG 1.015
IBU's 81
SMR 27

Add half fermentables upfront, and have at flameout.
7.5 lb Liquid Malt Extract - Light 35 4 75%
1 lb Dry Malt Extract - Light 42 4 10%

Steeping Grains @ 150-155 30min
Amount Fermentable PPG °L Bill %
16 oz American - Caramel / Crystal 60L 34 60 10%
8 oz American - Blackprinz 36 500 5%

Hops
Amount Variety Type AA Use Time IBU
1 oz Chinook Pellet 13 First Wort 22.71
1 oz Columbus Pellet 15 Boil 60 min 43.28
1 oz Cascade Pellet 7 Boil 10 min 7.32
1 oz Centennial Pellet 10 Boil 5 min 5.75
1 oz Cascade Pellet 7 Whirlpool at 175 °F 20 min 1.05
1 oz Centennial Pellet 10 Whirlpool at 175 °F 20 min 1.5
1 oz Cascade Pellet 7 Dry Hop 7 days
1 oz Centennial Pellet 10 Dry Hop 7 days


0.5 tsp Irish Moss Fining Boil 10 min

Yeast
White Labs - California Ale Yeast WLP001
Attenuation (avg):
76.5%

Starter:
Yes
Fermentation Temp:
64 °F
Pitch Rate:
1.0 (M cells / ml / ° P)
301 B cells required

 

[Weezy]

I'd recommend cutting your steeping grains by half. And your FWH and 60 min hops by half as well.

 

[Heavywalker]

I should have added that this is a 4 gallon boil and a 5 gallon batch.

Any particular reason that you would make those changes?

 

[Weezy]

10% crystal is a lot and will end up pretty sweet. 5-6% (typically half pound for 5 gallon brewers) is good range for flavor malts. Color malts are half that, 2.5-3%, or 1/4 pound in typical 5 gallon batch. Without brewing it and then making small adjustments on subsequent brews, these are good starting places for these types of additions. You may brew it and say, i'd like it a bit sweeter, so make it 10oz C60 instead of 8oz on that next brew. The blackprintz? You probably can get away with what you have.

Hops, you're showing 65 IBUs from your early hops. That alone gives you a bitterness to gravity ratio (BU:GU) of 1.0 (i.e. 65 IBU÷65 gravity units) which is a good target ratio right there. On top of that, the late hops and whirlpool are going to give you a fair bit of bitterness. More than the equations show. Your ratio will get very high. Higher than you want. Cutting those early hops in half will round it out nicely.

It'll be beer, have fun!

 

[Heavywalker]

Thanks for the explanation, it is very much appreciated. I see where you are coming from on the hop additions, and am going to make that adjustment.

Now I was under the impression that 5% crystal was a good place to start when you are doing all grain, but with an extract batch because your efficiency from the steeping grains is only going to be somewhere around 35% that more crystal and color malts were okay.

I am not disagreeing I am just trying to understand better and learn how to put my own recipes together.

Thanks

 

[Weezy]

Mashing specialty malts doesn't net you much more than steeping. The kilning process on crystals and roasted malts doesn't leave much starches eligible for enzymatic conversion to sugars. Heck, crystal malts are largely already converted to sugar and the starches are burned out on the blackprintz. You're more so just trying to get all of that out of the grain and into the wort via a hot water bath.